Phoebe

Phoebe,

in the Bible: see PhebePhebeor Phoebe, in the New Testament, deaconess at Cenchrea......Click the link for more information..

Phoebe

(fē`bē), in astronomy, one of the named moons, or natural satellites, of SaturnSaturn,in astronomy, 6th planet from the sun. Astronomical and Physical Characteristics of Saturn

Saturn's orbit lies between those of Jupiter and Uranus; its mean distance from the sun is c.886 million mi (1......Click the link for more information.. Also known as Saturn IX (or S9), Phoebe is 137 mi (220 km) in diameter, orbits Saturn at a mean distance of 8,047,985 mi (12,952,000 km), has an orbital period of 550.5 earth days, and rotates on its axis in about nine hours. The outermost of the known satellites, Phoebe was discovered by American astronomer William H. PickeringPickering, William Henry,1858–1938, American astronomer, b. Boston, grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S., 1879). He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1880–87) and at Harvard Observatory......Click the link for more information. in 1898. Phoebe's reflectivity is very low, and it appears to be composed of a mix of ice and rock. Its orbit is inclined 175° to Saturn; that is, its north pole is almost aligned with the planet's south pole. Phoebe orbits with retrograde motionretrograde motion,in astronomy, real or apparent movement of a planet, dwarf planet, moon, asteroid, or comet from east to west relative to the fixed stars. The most common direction of motion in the solar system, both for orbital revolution and axial rotation, is from west to.....Click the link for more information., i.e., opposite to that of the planet's rotation. The sharp inclination of its orbit, its retrograde motion, and the resemblance of its apparent density and composition to Kuiper belt objects (see cometcomet[Gr.,=longhaired], a small celestial body consisting mostly of dust and gases that moves in an elongated elliptical or nearly parabolic orbit around the sun or another star. Comets visible from the earth can be seen for periods ranging from a few days to several months......Click the link for more information.) suggest that Phoebe is a captured object similar to a comet or asteroid rather than a native satellite.

Phoebe,

in Greek mythology, a Titan. She was the mother of Leto and Asteria and the grandmother of Artemis. In some legends she was identified with Artemis as the goddess of the moon.

phoebe,

in zoology: see flycatcherflycatcher,common name for various members of the Old World family Muscicapidae, insectivorous songbirds including the kingbirds, phoebes, and pewees. Flycatchers vary in color from drab to brilliant, as in the crested monarch and paradise flycatchers of Asia and Africa......Click the link for more information..

Phoebe

(fee -bee) A small satellite of Saturn, discovered in 1898 by William Henry Pickering. It is the largest of Saturn's outer satellites, roughly spherical in shape with a diameter of 220 km. It follows a retrograde orbit, circling the planet once every 548.2 days at a mean distance of nearly 13 million km. Voyager 2 photographed Phoebe after passing Saturn in 1981, revealing a surface that is dark, with an albedo of 0.06, Phoebe is red in color but not as red as Iapetus. Its rotation period is about 9.4 hours, so Phoebe may not be in synchronous rotation with Saturn.

Phoebe was imaged again by the Cassini probe in June 2004 just before the spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn. The images Cassini returned, taken from a distance of 2078 km, revealed a tiny world heavily scarred by impact craters. Many of the impacts had excavated material from within the satellite's crust, hurling enormous rocks out onto its surface. The images also revealed alternating light and dark material around some of the craters. Other sensors aboard Cassini found that Phoebe contains not only water ice but also carbon dioxide. The geological and chemical complexities of Phoebe lead scientists to believe that it is not a captured asteroid, as was first thought, but an icy planetesimal, similar in makeup to a Kuiper Belt object, that was captured about 4000 million years ago by the spinning gas disk that eventually became Saturn. See also Table 2, backmatter.

Phoebe

a satellite of the planet Saturn. Phoebe’s diameter is 300 km, and its mean distance from the center of the planet is 12,950,000 km. Phoebe was discovered in 1898 by W. Pickering. It revolves around Saturn in the direction opposite to the planet’s rotation about its axis.

Phoebe

[′fē·bē]

(astronomy)

A satellite of the planet Saturn; its diameter is judged to be about 190 miles (320 kilometers); it has an eccentric orbit and retrograde revolution.

Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) are suboscine Passerine birds that have a pronounced bout of dawn singing during which they alternate between their two song types, phee-bee and pheeb-be-bee (Smith 1969).

Future studies nearer the northern range boundary of the Eastern Phoebe may reveal that limitations of its ability to alter foraging behaviors, in conjunction with physiological restrictions, ultimately inhibit the northern extent of its winter distribution.

Seven species (American Kestrel, American Woodcock, Belted Kingfisher, Eastern Phoebe, Tree Swallow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Eastern Meadowlark) had significant regressions for all three quantiles, demonstrating the heterogenous nature of the arrival data for most species.

Our observations may also represent the first examples of artificial light-aided nocturnal foraging for all species reported here except Gray Catbird, American Redstart, and Eastern Phoebe (Latham 1936; Bakken and Bakken 1977; Robert DeCandido, pers.

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